


Blind Date

by NicieLove



Category: Real Person Fiction
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 17:20:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18760948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicieLove/pseuds/NicieLove
Summary: Percy is stood up by her blind date when someone she doesn't expect makes her night worth it.





	Blind Date

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SheashireKitten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheashireKitten/gifts).



Percy took another sip of her drink, put it down, then picked it right back up to take another swig. She knew this was a bad idea, going on a blind date in a foreign country. Bringing her book closer, she tried to block out all of the noise around her. Who met in a pub for a date anyway? Especially for the first one! An uproar sounded all around as England made a goal, tying the game 1-1. She glanced around the room quickly and, seeing no one notice or make their way toward her, she went back to her book. The title “Alone” glared out at her and she smirked. How fitting. Probably not the best idea to bring a book of Poe’s works on her date but she needed something to fill her time, knowing she was going to come early, as was her curse.

Someone hit her stool, sending her elbow into her cup. She expertly caught the drink before any of it spilled onto her book. The man who bumped into the table sent out a short, drunken “Sorry ‘bout that”, before he walked off with who she assumed was his girlfriend. She gave their backs a wry smile and drained the rest of her drink, holding up the cup to the bartender. After he refilled it, she continued reading. Before she knew it, she was four drinks in and a quarter of the way done with her book and still no sign of her so called date. Cady was gonna hear all about this! She slowly brought the ribbon of the book to rest between the pages when she felt the pressure change on her left side. She looked to the side, hoping to see her date. She blinked. Then blinked again. Looked down at her book and shook her head, closing her eyes briefly. She must be a bit drunker than she thought. With that brown hair and scruff he looked kind of like...

“Are you alright?” Her thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the man sitting beside her. And what a voice it was! So smooth, like music, with a tinge of concern. She chuckled a bit, playing with the ribbon of her book.

“Not really,” she told him honestly. She didn’t know why she told him. She felt him shift in his seat as he turned his body to face her. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked. She looked at him and saw genuine concern in his blue eyes. She considered saying nothing, her forte, but she couldn’t really bring herself to, not with him looking at her that way. She sighed and shrugged lightly.

“I was supposed to be on a date. I’ve been here for,” she looked at her phone and coughed weakly when she saw the time, “two hours waiting for him.”  _ Had it really been that long? _ She felt her eyes prick a little bit and she coughed again, bringing her hands up to rub at her eyes a bit. The man made a sympathetic noise in his throat.

“Well at least you came prepared right?” he said easily, gesturing toward the book still laying open in front of her. He sat a bit closer to look at the pages. His scent wafted to her nose, so good, and she found herself shifting away from him a bit. “I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore, and I hold within my hand grains of the golden sand,” he read. He looked up at her with a smile. “Though I like Poe’s writings myself, probably not the best thing to be reading at the moment.” She huffed out a laugh as she closed the book.

“Yeah not my best move,” she acquiesced. “But I needed  _ something _ to distract me while I was sitting here. I just didn’t expect to be here by myself for that long.”

“I’m a little surprised anyone would wait two hours for someone. He must be really special.” His brows were furrowed as he sat back. Even confused, he was extremely handsome.

“Actually, I’ve never met him. It was a blind date set up by my friend and her husband. And I didn’t purposely stay and wait for two hours. I just got caught up in my book.”  _ And why am I explaining this to you?! _

“Hmm, do you think there is a possibility that he did show up but you were so engrossed that you didn’t notice him?” She froze a bit, thinking it over. That was a definite possibility. She brought her phone in front of her and typed out a quick message.

_ Hey, are we still meeting today? _

As she sat waiting for the message back, the man called the bartender over and they began a short conversation that she ignored. Her leg began shaking as phone vibrated. She calmed down a bit when she saw it was just Cady.

_ It must be going well! I told you you would like him! _

Percy took a confused breath and wrote back. 

_ Huh? He hasn’t shown up yet. _

“Here ya go.”

A glass with clear liquid and a lime was placed in front of her. She looked up surprised just as the bartender was stepping away. “Uh, wait! I didn’t order this,” she said loudly, leaning forward in her chair, trying to get his attention but he was already serving someone else. She leaned back with a sigh.

“I got that for you.” She looked at the guy as he took a sip from his own glass.

“You didn’t have to do that. I’ve already had too much to drink anyhow.”

He chuckled. “Yeah he told me that. It’s water and lime. The lime is to clear your head a bit.”

“Does that actually work?” she asked, skeptically.

“It does for me.” She lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip, holding it in her mouth to see if the taste was off. When she was sure it hadn’t been tampered with, she drank more, suddenly parched.

“Thank you for that,” she told him. He lifted his glass to hers. She felt the bar vibrate near her arm and looked down. She had two new messages, one from Cady and one from David, her date. Her stomach dipped when she saw David’s name. She opened the message from Cady first.

_ What do you mean he hasn’t shown up yet?! He tweeted that he was having a great time… _

The message was followed by a screenshot of his Twitter page. “I’m having a tremendous amount of fun on this date,” she read to herself. “I can’t wait to spend more time with her in the future. I can see myself being with her for a long time.” She breathed out a quiet oh. It seemed he was on another date. He must have forgotten theirs. She went to his message without responding to Cady and her blood ran cold.

_ I’m sorry love. I’m a bit under the weather at the mo so I won’t make it tonight. _

“Of course,” she whispered. A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, her automatic response when she gets bad news. 

“Good news?” the man asked.

“Not really?” she said, a weird smile on her face. “I kinda got stood up.” His face fell. “Which, if I’m being honest, I should have expected. Who even goes on blind dates anymore?! It’s never truly blind if you can see the person’s social media. Practically everyone’s life is on permanent display!” Her eyes widened in horror. The guy watched her with knitted brows. “Nooooo! What if he saw those embarrassing pictures my mom posted from Halloween three years ago? Oh god!” she groaned, dropping her head down on the bar harder than she meant to. “Ow.” She heard the guy chuckle.

“Come now, it can’t be  _ that _ bad!” She slid her head to look at him from the crook in her arm. 

“It really is.” She picked up her phone and sat back up, sighing deeply. She went to her tagged photos and pulled up the Halloween photos and slid the phone his way. There she was on the floor, dressed as a weird zombie girl (her best friend’s idea) and covered in food from the snack table next to her, her eyes closed and her mouth set in a grimace. A golden retriever was next to her, licking at her hand. He was quiet for a moment, his lips pursed a bit. She took pity on him. “Go ahead. You can laugh. Everyone else already did.”

“I’m really trying not to,” he said, his voice strained. Seeing him trying not to laugh had her break out into a fit of giggles which in turn made him laugh. His was an open mouthed laugh where his tongue stuck out a bit. She decided she found it endearing. Before she knew it, they were both gripping the bar as to not fall off their stools. It was obvious that she was still drunk though she didn’t know what his excuse was. After a minute, their laughter subsided and she sighed, wiping at her eyes. She grinned at him. He grinned back. “Honestly, the picture isn’t that bad.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s not! I’ve seen worse. What happened there?”

“My aunt’s dog decided to try to jump up to get one of those bone shaped cookies in my hand while I was distracted and ended up knocking me into the table. The food and drinks went everywhere! I was a mess. Everyone laughed and I tried to join in but I was mortified. My mom had worked so hard on that party.” She hid her face in her hands.

“How did your mum react?”

“She laughed too! It was so ridiculous.” He picked up the phone and looked at the picture again.

“What are you supposed to be? Is that a… bib around your neck?” His eyebrow raised as he looked at her.

“Hey! I was a zombie toddler!” she said, snatching the phone from him. “It was a group costume.” She scrolled through the pictures till she came across the one she was looking for. It was her and four of her closest friends all dressed up as zombies. Daric was a linebacker, his uniform torn and bloody and his helmet cracked down the middle. His brain was showing through the hole. Lea was a ballerina. She was hunched over, her leg bent at an awkward angle and a knife lodged in her shoulder. Lea’s twin brother, Liam, was a scientist. A big chunk of his neck was “missing” and blood ran down his white coat. Sandy, the mastermind behind the costumes and her best friend, was dressed in everyday clothes, the neck of his shirt stretched to hang off of his shoulder and blood splattered on his clothes. His “intestines” were spilling out of the bottom of his shirt. In his arms, he held Percy, his daughter. Her face was scrunched in an exaggerated cry, blood dripping from her bitten arm onto her teddy bear in her hand. All five of them had contacts that made their eyes bloodshot and gray and blue green veins protruding from their exposed skin. They were a ghastly sight and had fun scaring everyone that night.

The man’s eyes widened. “Wow,” he said, impressed. He looked up at her. “Can I send this to myself?” She nodded, not one to hold back sharing Sandy’s creations. “Your costumes look so… lifelike.” She giggled.

“Pun intended?” she asked. He laughed with her. “Sandy does the SFX make up for our local theatre.” She pointed at Sandy. “He had gotten quite good at it. We had to use his skills for Halloween of course.”

“He is very good at it! Has he thought about doing makeup for movies or anything?”

“Well he thought about going to Hollywood. Trying his hand at that whole thing but you know what they say about Hollywood. Ya gotta know somebody,” she told him, drinking more water. He nodded thoughtfully. She raised her hand to the bartender.

“That’s true. You said his name was Sandy?”

“Sandy Powell, yeah.” She asked the bartender for more water. His eyes went over the picture again and he began zooming into all of their “wounds”. 

“These are practically seamless,” he murmured. He handed her phone back to her. “If he is serious about wanting to do more than theatre, I know some people. I can get him a meeting.” Her eyes widened as the water she sipped almost went down the wrong pipe. She coughed loudly into her hand. Her eyes started to water.

“Are you serious?!” she choked.

“Definitely. He is  _ very _ good and a talent like that should be seen everywhere.” He pulled a pen from his pocket and picked up an unused napkin. He wrote on it before sliding it to her. She looked down and saw a name “Dan” and number on it. “Tell him to call this number. I will pass along his name so that he knows to expect a call from Mr. Powell. Have him get together a portfolio of his best work. Dan will most likely want to see it all.” She looked up at him in disbelief. Her mouth flapped open and closed like a fish. He did not see her as he was busy typing on his phone. “I’m sending him a quick email now with the picture. He’s always looking for new talent.” 

Percy’s breath whooshed out of her, hardly able to believe her ears. When she was finally able to speak, she croaked, “I… I don’t know what to say. Do you think he would actually have a chance?” The man threw a smile her way.

“If the rest of his work is like that, I wholeheartedly believe he has a chance.”

“That would be amazing,” she whispered. His phone chimed and he opened it. His smile got bigger as he slid his phone towards her. She read the email quietly, her eyes watering. Dan had emailed back quite enthused about this new potential, already citing that he has a new zombie project that he is going to be working on and would love to meet the artist behind the photo. Percy’s hands flew to her mouth as she let out a sob. Her heart leapt into her throat as the tears started flowing. “Oh my god! Oh my god, this is huge! I don’t know why I’m crying. It’s not even for me!” She launched herself out of the stool and wrapped her arms around his neck. He stiffened briefly before he relaxed and his arms came around to hug her back softly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she breathed. “Oh my god, I could kiss you. You are amazing!” He chuckled again, his arms tightening a bit.

“I did nothing but show that photo to someone. Sandy is the amazing one,” he said softly, his breath ghosting on her neck. She shivered as she pulled away from him a bit to look him in the eyes. They were so soft and she felt her heart stutter. She gently pulled away from him before she really did kiss him and sat back on her stool. He took another napkin and handed it to her to wipe her eyes. 

“Thank you.” She wiped the tears from her face, glad that she wore waterproof mascara. 

“My pleasure,” he said, still watching her with that soft smile. Her hand shook slightly as she reached for her water glass and took a sip.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. She was suddenly embarrassed at the way she threw herself at him. “I don’t normally hug strangers.”

“It’s alright. It was… nice.” She looked down, her face heating a bit. She silently thanked God and the universe that it was dim lighting. She looked back at him, at the dim light around him, making his brown hair stand out with light brown streaks and his blue eyes sparkle , and decided she spoke too soon, the dim lighting might actually be her downfall. He looked simultaneously hard and soft, something she didn’t think was possible. The light green jumper he wore made her want to hug him again. Maybe more than hug, she mused, then shook that thought out of her head. Luckily at that time, he started asking her what brought her to the outskirts of London. They talked for a while, laughing at each others ridiculous jokes. She felt completely at ease and she almost forgot about her missed date. She glanced at her phone and was startled at the time. It was nearly midnight.

“Oh wow! I stayed out later than I meant to,” she said. She looked up at him and noticed just how close they were. Apparently they leaned in more the longer they talked. She leaned back a little and looked away shyly. “I should probably head back to my hotel.”

“Right,” he said. His brows furrowed. “I apologize, I didn’t mean to keep you out so late.”

“It’s no problem, I enjoyed myself!” She inwardly cursed herself for sounding so enthusiastic. She cleared her throat and dialed it back. “Thanks again for what you did for my friend. It means a lot to me. And thanks for talking to me. You didn’t have to but it was really nice of you.” She slid off of the stool delicately and smoothed down her skirt.

“Anytime,” he said with that heart-stopping smile. She took a breath and returned the smile. 

“Bye.” She gave a small wave and, grabbing her book, turned to walk to the exit. She couldn’t believe she talked to a complete stranger for that long.  _  Well not a complete stranger _ , she thought. She contemplated getting his number for a second before dismissing the thought, quite sure he would not want that. About halfway to the door, the man caught up to her. 

“I realize you were here for someone else and, though it’s not ideal to wait for someone for as long as you did, I am pleased that he didn’t show up as I might never have met you,” he said, in one breath. Her heart flip flopped as she looked up at him. Sitting down, she wasn’t aware of just how tall he was. And the look he was giving her, if he didn’t stop soon, she was going to be just a puddle on the ground. “I would very much like to see you again.” This last part was said in a murmur, his eyes staring straight into her soul as he leaned closer. She swallowed harshly, suddenly unable to speak. She was sure her eyes were wide and she was aware that she had been quiet for a little too long. The man leaned away and smiled apologetically. He was taking her silence as a rejection and opened his mouth to speak when she finally found her voice.

“Percy Lewis,” she said, her voice sounding strangled to her own ears. He looked at her questionably. She gave a little cough. “That’s my name. Percy Lewis. Maybe you can look me up on Facebook?” Her hands were shaking again as the words left her mouth. It took him a second to register what she meant, then he smiled. He held his hand out and, after glancing at it, she put her hand in his. It was oh so warm. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it gently and she was pretty sure her heart stopped and her head exploded. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Percy Lewis. My name’s Tom. Hiddleston,” he said, almost as an afterthought. So she wasn’t that drunk. The words “I know” pushed against her lips but she swallowed them down, settling for a nervous laugh.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Tom.” His name made her lips tingle and she really felt like she needed air. She slid her hand out of his, reluctantly. “I- I’m in town for another 4 days,” she stuttered. “I leave on Monday.”

“Then we best make the most of our time together. I haven’t been on a picnic in a while. How does that sound? For tomorrow.” His eyes looked excited at the prospect.

“A picnic sounds lovely,” she breathed.

“Then it’s a date.”

She made a mental note to thank David for not showing up. Being stood up was quite possibly the best thing to happen to her.

  
  



End file.
